Christianity Today recently released an article you may have seen, Fox News’ Highly Reluctant Jesus Follower. It’s a worthy article to read Kirsten Powers’ first hand personal testimony of how she became a follower of Jesus.

It is getting a lot of airplay at the moment (I must have seen it 30 times already in personal Facebook feed, and uncountable times in my Twitter feed). If you haven’t read it yet, click on the link to read it.

It can be when evangelism is taught as a sales technique to get a sinner’s prayer. It can be when evangelism training is reduced to a set of step by step skills that are equivalent to sales techniques.

Ask leading questions.

Minimize parts of the gospel you find distasteful.

Don’t let people count the cost, but push for a decision today.

Show the benefits of following Jesus: eternal life, moral behavior, power of overcome problems.

Answer objections

Go for the close

I’ve read enough books on personal evangelism to know that sometimes we can get focused to much on the conversion moment, as if that is the ultimate goal. Books like that make evangelism too pragmatic.

I’m guilty of sometimes reducing evangelism to pragmatic methods to get a conversion prayer. Some of the people that I have “led to the Lord” are not part of a local church. They even prayed with me to receive Christ, but alas, some of them are not disciples.

One could take comfort in “Some of the seeds fall in the rock soil,” but I wonder if sometimes that is used as an excuse for sloppy and truly incomplete evangelism.

Evangelism can’t be the focus

Evangelism in this manner cannot be the focus. In the video below, Alan Hirsch maps out

If you are stickler for a tight definition of evangelism as the verbal sharing of the good news, than this video can help you realize that all the activity leading up to that verbal sharing of the gospel is part of that pre-conversion journey of discipleship.

You might plant a seed.

You might water a seed.

You might harvet the seed.

In the video clip above Alan Hirsch says,

“We must not stop sharing the good news, but here’s the deal, here’s the wonderful thing, it gets done along the way as you do discipleship. Great commission is just about going to disciple the nations and you know what happens…as you disciple them evangelism takes place, because it’s done in the context of discipleship.”

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In this brief video from The Exchange, Ed Stetzer interviews Robert Coleman during Exponential and this highlight was shared.

Dr. Coleman wrote the classic The Master Plan of Evangelism and was at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School when I was there. Unfortunately, I never had a class with him (it didn’t fit my schedule), but my evangelism classes from Trinity shape this ministry today.

When does Discipleship Start?

In this brief except, Coleman answers Stetzer’s question.

Stetzer writes about evangelism being a pre-discipleship journey, that the whole process of evangelism is a journey towards faith, a view I happen to share and write on as well.

I hold that the evangelistic journey is a process over time that grows people into a relationship with Christ. Discipleship continues after surrender.

Other’s may hold that the entire journey is part of the process of discipleship – showing Jesus and His teachings to one not yet a believer. It’s simply the pre-conversion stage in the disciplemaking process.

The counterbalance to urgency is the persistent observation that people need time to hear and process the gospel.

The kingdom of God is like. . .

The parable of the sower is found in the first three gospels:

Matthew 13:4-9, 18-23

Mark 4:3-9, 14-20

Luke 8:5-8, 11-15

In it, the evangelist can find great comfort as to the different reactions that will be encountered:

Fell on the road

Shallow /Rocky Ground

Thorny Ground

Good Soil

The contact evangelists will argue that their methods of public proclamation is scattering the seed as far as possible.

The relational / lifestyle evangelist will argue that they spend time preparing the soil to get a good harvest.

The word of God is compared to the seed, which needs time to germinate and grow.

Likewise, in Mark 4:26-29:

Then Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is like someone who plants seed in the ground. Night and day, whether the person is asleep or awake, the seed still grows, but the person does not know how it grows. By itself the earth produces grain. First the plant grows, then the head, and then all the grain in the head.When the grain is ready, the farmer cuts it, because this is the harvest time.”

The story suggests the passage of time.

Count the cost

Jesus tells this parable:

Whoever is not willing to carry his cross and follow me cannot be my follower. If you want to build a tower, you first sit down and decide how much it will cost, to see if you have enough money to finish the job. If you don’t, you might lay the foundation, but you would not be able to finish. Then all who would see it would make fun of you, saying, ‘This person began to build but was not able to finish.’ “If a king is going to fight another king, first he will sit down and plan. He will decide if he and his ten thousand soldiers can defeat the other king who has twenty thousand soldiers. If he can’t, then while the other king is still far away, he will send some people to speak to him and ask for peace.33 In the same way, you must give up everything you have to be my follower. – Luke 14: 27-32

There is a time process involved in counting the cost.

Do people need time?

People who don’t know the Lord may need time.

They don’t know what Jesus did for them and need to learn.

They don’t see the need for Jesus in their life.

They may not even believe that the Bible is a valid truth source.

They may not even believe in God.

They may not want to sign up for a lifetime commitment into God’s service, where they may only have weird examples of Christ followers in their mind.

They may have an understanding of Jesus that is incorrect and need further information.

They may have had bad experiences in the church, and therefore want nothing to do with church people.

They may need to see the rational side of the Christian faith – a place for apologetics and personal reflection.